No Strings Attached
by insinr8
Summary: The temperament of a child is very unpredictable. The Sandaime had forgotten that, much to his sorrow. When everyone has an ulterior motive, Naruto struggles to find his footing in a world of lies, deceit and betrayal. Intelligent!Danzo
1. Prologue

**Only saying this once: I do not own Naruto.**

 **Now that I have more experience writing, I hope this will turn out better than my last attempt.**

 **Updates will be slow. My ME/XCOM crossover story is a higher priority at the moment. Once that is done, I can fully devote my attention to this.**

 **Read and Review!**

Prologue

 _Nearly three decades ago_

"What are you doing over here?"

The red-haired girl looked up at her visitor from her position. He'd found her sitting back up against one of the trees near the training grounds, glowering darkly at her own hand.

The girl sighed. "I just…wanted some time to think."

He smirked. "You can think?" The boy ducked as a glistening chain arced where his head would have been.

"Are you just here to piss me off?" she growled.

"That could be one of the reasons," he admitted. "But the real reason is because sensei told me to look for you. He's kind of worried that don't hang with us much outside of training or missions."

"I have my own friends," she answered haughtily.

"I know. I checked with them. They said you've been ditching them too."

"I don't want to talk to anyone right now," she replied baldly, "and you're not helping!"

If he'd possessed any ounce of self-preservation, he would have known to keep his mouth shut. "Jeez, is it that time of the month already?"

He paled as a mass of chains erupted from the girl in response to his innuendo. "I'll kill you!" she shrieked, springing up from her place on the ground and lunging at him with eyes full of female fury.

The boy decided to evacuate in the most dignified way possible: by turning tail and running away screaming shrilly like a member of the opposite sex.

The chase ended for her nearly four hundred meters later when her antagonist made it to the safety of the market district. She petered out and allowed her chains to dissipate before taking a deep breath and turning to head back to her spot. To her annoyance, she found another visitor waiting for her.

"Any particular reason you decided to try and almost kill your teammate?" he queried.

"He wouldn't leave me alone, kind of like you," she grumbled.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Something wrong?!" she exploded. "Of course! I'm stuck in this stupid village practically a world away from everyone I knew in my family! I get sent here because of some stupid agreement, and they tell me I can never see my parents again! I don't want to be here! I want to go home! _I hate this stupid village!_ " the boy waited patiently as she paused to take a series of deep breaths. "Why did it have to be me?" she whimpered.

He frowned. "You sound like you know why you were picked. You just don't like the reason they did it."

"I don't need you to tell me that."

He held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Just trying to help you out. I don't like seeing my friends like this."

She glared at him for a moment before her gaze softened a touch. "You're too flaky to be my friend."

He sighed. "Come on. I tried to get the other kids to stop calling you 'Tomato' behind your back. A little gratitude might be nice."

"You're just trying to get me to go out with you," she accused. "I've seen how those harpies hang on to you all the time. You want me to join your harem? Is that it?"

"I don't have a harem," he objected with some indignance.

"Suuuure," she drawled. "and they totally don't call themselves the 'Namikaze fan club' just because they like your winning personality. Nope. Not at all."

He smirked. "Don't tell me you're jealous, are you?"

She snorted. "In your dreams."

"Look, I'm just worried about you. I know you want to see your family back home, but you have people here who care about you too. We're all here for you. You don't have to do…whatever you're doing all by yourself."

"You wouldn't understand," she muttered dismissively.

He shrugged. "I can't if you won't tell me about it."

"Just go away."

Knowing that he wasn't going to budge her, he turned and left the stubborn girl to her own devices, though not before giving her a soft pat on the back.

She let her gaze follow his retreating form for a distance before returning to her hand-centric rumination. Her gaze darkened once more as she pulled out one of her chains from her palm. It waved around in front of her, almost like it was mocking her as the source of her troubles. Her special chakra that allowed her to control the nine-tailed beast had been the sole reason she'd been chosen to be handed off to Konohagakure. And with her destiny to become its next container and prison, she would be forever bound to this village, far away from everyone in her old life as a noble princess of the Uzumaki clan. The fact that her chakra took the form of chains was a fitting metaphor for her life. That same damned chakra that would chain the beast to her also chained her to a village that she held no love for.

 _Someday,_ she vowed to herself, _I will break these chains. This place can go to hell as long as I can go back to my family._

From a distance, a man with a cyclopean appearance and an x-shaped scar on his chin looked on with grave concern.

 _Present Time_

"I should thank you, demon brat, for bringing the Forbidden scroll to me. Allow me to express my gratitude!"

"Naruto, get out of the way!"

Naruto obeyed the command on pure instinct, jumping away from the massive four-pronged shuriken that sailed his way. Meanwhile, Iruka threw a hail of kunai at his former comrade, forcing the man to dodge and turn his attention from the young academy student.

"Mizuki-sensei, w-why?"

"Naruto, just get out of here!" Iruka ordered.

"How amusing," Mizuki noted. "You're actually defending the demon that killed your parents?"

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," the scarred instructor snarled. "especially if you think that Naruto is the demon!"

"Don't tell me you've fallen under its spell! It destroyed Konoha once, and it could do so again! But I'll take care of it for you if you'll let me!"

"Like hell! No one attacks my students!"

Naruto, even from a distance away, could hear the two men arguing even over the din of clashing metal.

"He's a monster, and he'll die like one."

"He's just the container of the beast!" Iruka exploded. "No wonder you're just an assistant instructor if you're too stupid to see that! He holds it back! He protects the village just by existing!"

Mizuki's eyes narrowed and his grin disappeared. "Shut up, demon lover!" he growled as he redoubled his efforts, increasing the ferocity of his attacks. "You never would have become an instructor if it wasn't for me! You're so mediocre you barely scraped by!"

"At least I'm not so mediocre that I can tell the difference between a scroll and what is sealed inside it! Or that I need to trick a genin into stealing a village treasure for me!"

The silver-haired man howled in rage. Iruka managed to land a good slice with his kunai, only to be caught off guard as his former friend ignored the wound and slugged him hard in the solar plexus, smashing him into a tree.

"Maybe not," Mizuki admitted as he stalked over, a predatory smile gracing his features. "but you're mediocre enough to die at the hands of someone who did!"

Iruka's eyes widened, and Mizuki was suddenly jolted sideways as Naruto appeared in midair, having rammed his fist against his former instructor's temple.

"Leave him alone!" he glared.

"Naruto, no!" Iruka gasped.

Mizuki blinked away the haze and his smile widened. "So the demon comes back to die."

"You tricked me," Naruto snarled. "You used me. And you tried to kill me. No one gets away with that!" Mizuki's smile vanished as Naruto's form turned reddish and his voice became more guttural and feral. **"NO ONE!"**

"Naruto!"

The student lunged and Mizuki screamed as he felt something rake across his left side even as he dodged. He landed and turned to face the brat before rubbing his bloodied ribs. _What the hell?! I know I dodged! How did he hit me?_

Iruka watched as Naruto charged again, slashing with elongated clawed fingernails. Once again, the (in his mind) genin missed, but several more cuts appeared on Mizuki's body.

The traitor flipped backward and drew several shuriken. _Better play it safe at range._

Naruto's next attack was cut short as he was nailed with three shuriken with enough force to be thrown backward against a tree. Both adults were shocked as a bush in front of Naruto shredded itself. Only Iruka noticed that it happened as Naruto flailed his hands in front of himself upon hitting the tree.

The boy got back up and snarled again, unconsciously channeling more chakra before taking off once more.

This time, they saw what happened. From the boys fingertips trailed streams of chakra that acted like razor whips as he swung his arms. Mizuki smirked as he dodged them before hitting Naruto in the back and making him stumble. As long as he could see what was coming, he could dodge it.

Naruto growled before remembering what he'd learned in the scroll. He placed his hands together. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Both men froze. _Kage bunshin?_ Their unspoken question was answered by an explosion of smoke that cleared to reveal ten of Naruto, similarly coated in chakra. And with their appearance went all of Mizuki's hopes of success.

He reflexively eliminated four of them with a desperate burst of shuriken, but the remaining six, including the real Naruto, virtually shredded him with their whips. He collapsed as Naruto walked up to him dispelling his clones and picking him up by the neck with inhuman strength.

"That's enough." Iruka surprised the boy by clamping one hand firmly on his shoulder. "We need him alive, Naruto."

Naruto looked up. "But he hurt you, Iruka-sensei!"

The instructor chuckled and gestured at his former friend. "Not as much as you hurt him."

Naruto looked back at the man before dropping him and viciously kicking him in the head. "You used me!" he spat. "I hope you rot in hell!"

"Oh he will, Naruto," Iruka assured him. "He will."

* * *

Hiruzen kept silent as Iruka finished his report, gazing at the boy-no, young man next to him, trying to get a read on him.

The fact that Naruto was troubled wasn't surprising. It would be alarming if he wasn't affected by the events of this night. But the issues brought up would have to be addressed with care. Young minds are very impressionable.

"How are you feeling, Naruto?"

"I'm pissed off that he tricked me like that," the blond replied. "No one does that to me!"

"I think you made that clear," the Hokage noted dryly. "But that's not what's troubling you."

"…he called me the demon-"

"Naruto, I told you. You're not the demon," Iruka admonished. "You're its prison. You hold it back to protect us."

"Is that why everyone hates me?" he demanded.

"Everyone hates you?" Hiruzen asked with a bit of mirth. "I certainly don't. Neither does Iruka, or those two people at Ichiraku's."

"It might as well be everyone," Naruto muttered bitterly, causing both men to feel a sting of pain. "Only a few people in this stupid place who don't hate me."

"They don't know better," Iruka cautioned.

A long pause, and then Naruto looked up again. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were too young to understand," the Hokage answered. "What would you have thought only a year ago if I had told you what you carry inside of yourself?"

The blond fell silent again. "Why me?" he finally asked. "Why am I the one who has to hold the fox?"

The Hokage grimaced, remembering the last time he'd heard those same exact words. He struggled to come up with an explanation. Fortunately, Iruka stepped in, unaware of his dilemma.

"The Yondaime chose you because he knew you would protect the village, Naruto."

Later on, Hiruzen Sarutobi would remember that moment as one of his greatest regrets.

"So he used me too," Naruto mumbled.

"No, that's not-"

"He used me just like Mizuki did!" Naruto continued, voice rising as he ignored his teacher.

"Naruto, he had no choice," the Sandaime began.

"He could have asked me!" the boy shouted.

"You were a baby at the time! How was he supposed to ask your permission?"

Naruto shook his head. "He used me. Mizuki used me. You're all using me. Everyone is just using me! Even you, old man!" With that, Naruto turned and ran for the stairs.

"Naruto, wait! Damn it!" Iruka turned toward the Hokage.

"Go," He almost didn't, surprised as he was by the tiredness in the man's voice. "Go!"

As the teacher raced out after his student, the old man looked toward the monument where the face of his would-be successor gazed back. "Forgive me, Minato."

* * *

On a night like this, could only think of one place where his wayward student would go. To his surprise, Naruto was not there. Though upon reflection, it really wasn't a surprise that Naruto would be someplace other than the Hokage Monument after coming to the conclusion that the Yondaime had used him against his will.

 _If I were Naruto, what other place would I go to?_ That thought didn't take long for the instructor to finish. Even if the shop was closed, Teuchi and Ayame were definitely two individuals that Naruto would feel to have never taken advantage of him. Hell, those two had given him freebies several times on the days when he'd spent his money being overcharged for groceries.

That last part brought a pang to Iruka's heart when he considered that he knew about it, but had never done anything to address it.

Sure enough, Naruto was sitting on a stool, brooding, while the shopkeeper and his daughter cleaned the store and prepped for the next day. Iruka met Teuchi's gaze, and the men shared a wordless exchange before the chef nodded his approval. Taking a stool, the scarred chuunin sat down next to the boy.

"Naruto, the Hokage has just been trying to protect you. He didn't use you."

The blond sat in silence, giving no indication that he heard.

"I've never used you either. Don't you trust me, Naruto?"

"You ignored me for the first two years, sensei," Iruka winced at the cutting reply. "I haven't forgotten that."

"But I learned better!" he pleaded. "I'm sorry I ever treated you that way!"

"How can I believe you?" Naruto turned to glare at his teacher. "You could have apologized last year. You could have apologized any time before today. It's only when I brought it up again that you said you're sorry! You're trying to trick me just like Mizuki!"

Now _that_ cut deep. Being placed on the same level as his traitorous former friend? It hurt a lot. And the worst part was that he couldn't really deny the accusation.

"And if the old man really wanted to protect me, he could have at least told me about the fox instead of making me think everyone hates me for no reason!"

" 'Everyone,' Naruto?" Ayami piped up, adopting a hurt expression. "Even me?"

Naruto's face softened. "Almost everyone," he amended. "Not you, Ayame-chan."

Iruka sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. "Naruto, for what it's worth, I'm going to pass you. You're a genin as of tonight. You only have to go to the academy one more time, tomorrow. And then you never have to come back again. But I hope you can forgive me someday. And here," he reached up and untied his headband before laying it on the table next to the angry blond, "you've earned this."

He got up, and after nodding his thanks to the two civilians, he turned to walk back to his apartment. He glanced over his shoulder one more time and saw that Naruto was holding his new headband gently in his hand. It brought him hope that the boy would accept him again.

He would need that hope to sleep tonight.

* * *

"So what are your thoughts?" the Sandaime asked.

Inoichi rubbed his chin in thought, recalling everything he'd just been told. "It does sound like Naruto was channeling the fox's chakra on a very limited scale. But for him to press a chuunin this early on is a little alarming."

"I debriefed several ANBU after Mizuki's defeat. They were spread all over the village. Not even the ones closest to the forest sensed anything out of the ordinary."

"That's pretty solid proof how little chakra he used," the Yamanaka clan head agreed. "You also said that he missed direct contact with the traitor, but still managed to hurt him."

"Yes. Naruto was generating trails of chakra from his fingers. They only became visible later as he added more chakra, but they were capable of inflicting moderate wounds. At least initially. Once he added more chakra and created his clones, they were even more effective cutting weapons."

"Reminds me of Kushina's chains," Inoichi recalled. "Could be that Naruto inherited her abilities."

"There's no record of any sort of Uzumaki kekkei genkai that resembles this. Kushina was the only one of her clan to possess that kind of chakra ability."

"And she certainly wasn't too happy about it at first," the blond chuckled in spite of the events of the past twelve hours.

"That she wasn't," Hiruzen acknowledged.

The door opened, and a black-garbed old man with a cane and an x-shaped scar on his chin entered. "I hear things went poorly last night, Sarutobi."

"And I suppose you want to induct Naruto into your forces yet again?" the Hokage challenged.

The new arrival shook his head. "Hardly. It would do little good at this juncture. The boy is already too visible for that to work properly, no thanks to your misguided efforts."

"You might be solely concerned with Naruto's status as a jinchuuriki, but he is still just a child," Hiruzen retorted.

"A child with the latent power of the greatest of the tailed beasts, granted to him by his father, and also possessing the same ability as his mother," the man corrected.

"Lord Danzo, that is merely speculation on our part," Inoichi cautioned.

"And we shall see one way or another," Danzo noted. "In the meantime, it once again falls to me to clean your mess up, Hiruzen. The boy is at a crossroads right now, and he could quite possibly consider abandoning the village. That is not a possibility we can accept."

"I can clean my own messes up," the Hokage argued.

Danzo shook his head. "He does not trust you anymore. Judging from the reports and observations of young Iruka's attempts to reconcile with him, the boy wouldn't even deign to speak with you unless absolutely necessary. And it is because he believes you lied to him, or you have been manipulating him."

"I have to agree with that," the Yamanaka added. "After reading his file, I doubt there is anyone he knows that he would trust at all, beyond the two at the Ramen shop."

"And thus, that is why I will handle this," the crippled man announced. "The boy does not know me. He cannot pass judgment one way or another. And I will earn his trust by doing the one thing he believes you won't: I will tell him the truth."

"You would deprive him of his innocence," Hiruzen protested.

"As of last night, he is a genin, a shinobi of this village," Danzo answered, "according to Iruka. The time of innocence has passed. One might argue that he has been deprived even of that precious period, due to the short-sightedness of the villagers. I believe that the boy would prefer to hear an ugly truth rather than a beautiful lie."

Inoichi looked on in apprehension while the Hokage sighed in defeat. "You better not twist him into another one of your weapons," he warned.

"We both know it is far too late for that," the cripple replied as he left the office.

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Kiba demanded. "You failed the exam, dobe!"

Immediately, the boy regretted his taunt as Naruto pinned him with a glare that promised a great deal of pain. Then the blond tapped the forehead protector that Iruka had given him before wordlessly sweeping past him and taking a seat.

The entire class was stunned. Yesterday, Naruto would have loudly expressed his displeasure over something like that. Today, he was sullen and withdrawn. The girl sitting directly behind him was particularly dismayed at the change in his demeanor.

"Yo Naruto, are you okay?" Shikamaru asked.

"I'm fine," was the growled reply.

The Nara raised both hands defensively. "Just asking. You're really different today, man."

Iruka entered the room, taking a moment to look at the blond boy and smile internally at the sight of his old headband. "Alright everyone, today is your last day at the Academy. You will be sorted into your teams, and then you'll be meeting your sensei's. So listen up for-yes, Sakura?"

"Iruka-sensei," the pinkette asked tentatively, "why is Naruto-baka here? Didn't he flunk?"

The instructor noted the pain in Naruto's eyes upon hearing his crush insult him. "Last night, he was tricked into stealing the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage's office by Mizuki. Later, he helped to defeat the traitor and saved my life," he explained to the class. "Since he was skilled enough to infiltrate such a high-security location without detection, and he defeated a chuunin, I decided he had more than earned the rank of genin."

Despite himself, a smirk graced Naruto's face while the class turned to stare at him with incredulity, and a few cases of jealousy.

 _How did the dobe do all that?!_ Sasuke wondered. _He really broke into the Hokage's office and escaped?!_

 _N-Naruto-kun…he saved Iruka-sensei?_ Hinata thought as she gazed at the back of her object of affection.

"Now listen up as I call your names. Team 1 will consist of…"

Naruto's eyes narrowed when it was announced that he was teamed up with Sakura and Sasuke. While he was happy to be on the same team as the pinkette, the price was dealing with that stuck-up Uchiha asshole. The fact that said asshole was glaring at him from across the room did little to improve his foul mood.

The subsequent two-hour-long wait for their sensei, Kakashi Hatake, to arrive merely made it worse. At another time, he would have been badgering Sakura for a date as usual. But instead, he sat in his chair, mind turning over different possible reasons for being assigned these two teammates and wondering what in the world was keeping their sensei from showing up on time.

Sasuke seemed to have forgotten his earlier jealousy, but he was still eyeballing the blond due to the fact that it was just so unusual for him to not say a word during the whole time. Similarly, Sakura was nervously watching him, waiting for him to ask her out and bring some semblance of normality to the day.

Finally, the man they were waiting for arrived. Or appeared to. He had arrived almost forty-five minutes earlier, but had remained outside observing from a distance. The Hokage had briefed him on last night's escapade, and Naruto's subsequent loss of trust in himself. He had seen the pain of rejection on the old shinobi's face during that talk, but Sarutobi expressed a great deal of concern when he told Kakashi that Danzo intended to gain the boy's trust.

Kakashi learned, not in so many words, that he was supposed to counter that, by trying to get in the boy's good graces first. While both older men were united in wishing to ensure the strength of the village, the Sandaime wanted to prevent his old rival from indoctrinating the boy. Unable to close with Naruto in person, he would be relying on Kakashi to do the job.

Part of him wondered exactly how the hell he was supposed to do that. Kakashi wasn't known for socializing with anyone, much less three academy brats turned genin. And as their superior, he couldn't simply shower Naruto with attention and instruction anymore than he could with Sasuke. That would prove detrimental to team cohesion. It would seem that once again, like many times during his tenure in ANBU, he had been given an impossible mission.

The difference was that this time, he couldn't simply kill off the problem.

"You three, rooftop in two minutes," he said as he took one step into the room before performing a lazy about-face and walking right back out. Belatedly, just before he shunshined away, he heard the girl scream "YOU'RE LATE!"

One hundred and fifteen seconds later, he was joined at his perch on the south edge of the building by the three genin.

"Let's get introductions out of the way," he began, closing his favorite book. "Kakashi Hatake, jonin, formerly ANBU, and your new superior." He paused to make sure the three were paying attention to him. "Likes and dislikes, you'll find out soon enough. Hobbies and life goals, none of your business. Now your turn, pinky."

The girl glared. "My name's SAKURA, not 'pinky!'"

"Hmm?" Kakashi smirked under his mask as he mock cleared his ear with his finger. "You say something?"

Amazingly, the girl didn't rise to the bait. She merely glowered at him for a moment. "I like Sasuke," she blushed. "I don't like Naruto!" Naruto's eyes betrayed some of the pain from that statement. "And my hobbies…" she blushed a deeper red, but didn't elaborate.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and then coughed. "Right, guess we don't need to know exactly what those are. You're next, broody."

Sasuke's eye twitched in annoyance. "My name's Sasuke. I like training, I hate weakness and wasting time, and my goal is to avenge my clan."

 _Short, sweet and to the point,_ the jonin thought. _Also pretty much exactly what his file says._ "And how about you, mister sunshine?"

The blond scowled. "Naruto Uzumaki. And I'm not telling you anything else."

"Naruto-baka!" Sakura yelled, causing the three males to wince. "He's our sensei! You have to tell him!"

"Why aren't you going to do what everyone else did?" Kakashi asked.

"Because I'm not giving out any information that anyone could use against me," the blond replied. "I've had it with being lied to or taken advantage of."

Sakura gaped. Sasuke looked on in surprise. And Kakashi chuckled and clapped slowly. "That is the first intelligent thing any of you has done since I arrived."

"Sensei?!"

"You notice I didn't tell you anything about my personal habits, right?" he admonished the other two. "Whereas you both told me plenty of things that I could use if I were an enemy. From what Sasuke said, one sure place to find him would be a training ground, and you would probably be close by. Failing that, I would just listen for you to say something like 'get away from me Naruto-baka.' But with Naruto, he hasn't given me anything to work with."

Naruto smirked to himself, only to have it wiped from his face by what the jonin said next. "Of course, I have an advantage. I already know everything about you three from your files. So I could find you and use your information against you regardless. This leads to the first lesson for you three: never give out personal information."

"Now, I'm going to be testing you tomorrow as a group. I suggest that you skip breakfast tomorrow so you don't throw up, because this test is going to be hard on you. Got it? Good. Now get." And with that, Kakashi shunshined away.

Naruto stood up, ignoring the glare from Sasuke as he made for the stairway. He picked up speed so he wouldn't have to hear Sakura ask Sasuke out. Unbidden, he found his feet carrying him to Ichiraku's, now his favorite spot in the village. He sat down at the counter as usual and made his order. So far today, this was the only thing that had made him smile.

When he went for his wallet to pay for the meal however, Ayame shook her head. "Someone already paid for your meal, Naruto."

"What? Who?"

The waitress pointed across the street at an old man wearing black and playing shogi by himself. Bewildered, Naruto thanked Ayame and made his way over to the mysterious man.

"I heard you paid for my ramen," Naruto said as he approached.

"That I did," the man admitted as he moved the remaining black knight forward before slowly rotating the board and contemplating a countermove for the white.

"Why?"

"To get your attention, boy"

"What do you want?"

"I think the question is what do _you_ want, boy?" the man asked. "I heard all about the fiasco from last night, especially how the traitor tricked you into doing his bidding."

"He got what he deserved," the boy muttered. The old man allowed the corners of his lips to curl upward, but did not reply to that statement.

"You think that the Sandaime was using you," he continued while moving the white gold general backward. "Why?"

"How do you know that?" Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I am one of the advisors to the Hokage, boy," the man admitted. "Very little happens within Konoha that I do not hear about."

"Are you here to try and get me to trust the old man again?"

"Hardly," the man scoffed. "I am simply here to make certain that you will not abandon your village. The Yondaime most assuredly did not choose to seal the Kyuubi into a child only to have that child run off. Or worse, to use it against Konoha."

"I wouldn't do that!" Naruto protested angrily.

"There are others who would in your place, boy," A black pawn moved forward. "My question remains: why do you think the Sandaime was using you?"

The blond thought for a moment. "Because he didn't tell me what I needed to know. He should have told me about the damned fox before."

"Because he thought you didn't need to know at the time," the old man corrected him. "Do not forget that the Sandaime Hokage has decades of experience as both a shinobi and a leader of this village. He has seen much of human nature, and you will find as you age that experience makes you more cautious about your choices."

"He still lied to me," Naruto persisted stubbornly.

A white rook moved to capture the pawn. "Boy, we are shinobi. Our world is one of lies, deceit and mistrust. We all use each other and manipulate each other to our own ends. Should you progress to become chuunin or even a jonin, you will see how you yourself will use and manipulate your superiors or subordinates to your own advantage. On a mission, you may appear to become close to a woman only to betray her by using information that you obtain from her to target her friends or employers."

"But that's…"

"It is not honorable. It is not just. It is effective." A black bishop countered by moving diagonally to endanger both the white king and the rook. "Samurai fight under a code. Shinobi have no such limitations. All that matters is that we complete our tasks at any cost."

"Then where do we stop?!" Naruto demanded.

" _When_ do we stop?" the cripple smiled at the board, noting that white had no way out of the situation. He lifted the board and tipped it sideways, allowing all the pieces to slide off into the tray beneath. "When there is no longer any point in continuing."

A moment of silence reigned as the elder man watched the boy's expression, which reflected his inner turmoil.

"So no matter what, I'll always be lied to and manipulated," he concluded bitterly.

"That is not what I said, boy," the old man admonished as he began placing the pieces back on the board to begin anew. "Even in our business, you will encounter truth. Cherish those moments," he said wistfully. "They are far and few in between, which makes them all the more precious. And if you ever encounter someone who will truly never lie to you or manipulate you for their own ends, then you will have had better luck than this old man."

Naruto noted the hint of bitterness in the man's voice. "So only most of the time."

The man shrugged, now adjusting pieces on the board to be just so. "That will depend on your circumstances. But you'd best accept the reality and come up with a method of dealing with it. There are two ways you can handle a life of lies and manipulation. You've no doubt entertained the idea of running away from it." He looked up again to see Naruto reluctantly nod. "But lies and manipulation are not limited to the life of a shinobi. You will encounter them everywhere you go, no matter your profession. So attempting to run would appear to be a poor choice indeed."

"Then what's the other choice?" Naruto whispered.

The old man smiled and picked up a white pawn. "Take the initiative," A loud clack echoed for the two of them as he placed the pawn one space ahead, "and make the first move."

 **It always bothered me how short-sighted a man like Danzo could be in canon. Someone of his knowledge and position should have known damned well that becoming Hokage would have been hugely detrimental for himself. Here, Danzo has no such desires. He's quite content to remain in the shadows out of the public eye where he has far more latitude to pursue any actions he deems necessary. On the other hand, Hiruzen's hands are quite tied due to his political status.**

 **As you may already be able to tell, this story comes down firmly on the side of cynicism. As a result of Naruto's (perceived) betrayal at the hands of the Sandaime, he is much more wary and guarded. Consequently, he'll become far more observant and intelligent as the story goes on.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Finally got this one out. The hardest part was writing out the bell test scene in a believable and semi-realistic way.**

 **Read and Review!**

Chapter One

"YOU'RE LATE AGAIN!" Naruto and Sasuke winced as Sakura screamed at their sensei.

"Your powers of observation are astounding," Kakashi answered, unperturbed by the volume. "I had things to do, and places to be. Now, are you three ready for my test?"

Three loud growling sounds answered him, leading to a raised eyebrow.

"I see you didn't ignore me in favor of common sense," he continued with a disapproving tone. "You all skipped breakfast."

"B-but you told us to, sensei!"

"If I told you to jump off the Hokage Monument, would you do that? Something for you all to keep in mind: stupid orders are stupid. Don't obey stupid orders. In this case, skipping breakfast is stupid because your body needs energy. If you don't eat, you are handicapping yourself. If you're on a mission, you're making yourself that much weaker and more of a liability to the mission. NEVER skip meals. Understood?"

Three embarrassed nods greeted him.

"Now as for the test, you'll just have to do it with what little energy you have right now. Sucks to fight impaired doesn't it?"

"We're fighting?" Naruto asked. "Who are we fighting?"

"Me," Kakashi replied. "All three of you versus me."

"What?!" Sakura sputtered in concern. "B-but sensei, you could get hurt!"

Sasuke blinked and grabbed at his forehead before slowly pulling his hand down his face. The idiocy of this fangirl…

Kakashi laughed. "Sakura, if any of you really manage to hurt me, then I should quit being a Jonin. It would be a disgrace for three fresh genin to hand me my ass."

The pinkette blushed, feeling extremely stupid at the moment.

"Sakura-chan, we should all attack together. Like he said, he's a jonin. He's better than any of us."

The embarrassed girl whirled around furiously. "Shut up, baka! I know that!"

Kakashi watched as Naruto wilted. _Why in the hell does he keep trying when everyone can see she doesn't give a shit about him?_

"So anyway, your goal is to get this bell off me in the next hour." He waved his hand with a bell hanging from a red ribbon between his fingers. "You get the bell, you pass the test. You fail, well at least I'll have some idea of where to start training you three."

"So this is an evaluation," Sasuke stated flatly.

"Everything up to this is an evaluation. So far, you're all doing horribly." The genin bristled. "Not necessarily your fault. The Academy's gone to shit since I went through it. But this part is all you. No blaming the Academy for failing here. This is a test of how fast you can learn. So you better give it your all. Got it?"

The genin nodded, and Kakashi hooked the bell to the back of his belt. "Whenever you're ready…"

Surprisingly, Naruto made the first move, dashing forward with a kunai. Kakashi merely stood with his hands in his pockets as the genin approached painfully slowly. Then he bent back to avoid the kunai being thrown at his face. Naruto attempted to use that moment to try and reach out and grab the bell straight off as he ran past, but Kakashi merely flipped sideways over him, landing in a slight crouch before spinning and kicking at thin air. Naruto stopped his charge and turned just in time to get nailed in the chest with a rock that the Jonin had sent flying at him from the kick.

As the orange-wearing genin crumpled to the grass with the wind knocked out of him, Sasuke was already in motion, his hands flying through handseals. "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!"

Naruto picked himself off the ground just in time to see Kakashi effortlessly dodge every single fireball while keeping his hands in his pockets.

"Come on," he drawled. "At least make me use my hands, would you?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and he moved into another set of handseals. But he was cut off as his teammate called out his own. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

A wave of orange-clad genin appeared and descended on the jonin. _Me and my big mouth,_ Kakashi thought to himself while he was forced to use his hands to parry or deflect the clones' weak attacks. None of them were actually dangerous, mind you, but it was the principle of the thing. No genin would be laying a hand on him that easily.

The other two stared in awe. "How did he…" Sakura was interrupted by Sasuke grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into the forest.

"You know," the Jonin dusted off his hands as he eyed the angry genin in front of him, "it's not really the smartest thing to attack a jonin head on."

"I'm taking the initiative," Naruto retorted, withdrawing several more kunai. "If you're busy fighting me, Sasuke and Sakura-chan have time to think of something else!"

"So you actually have a plan of some kind," Kakashi mused as he idly dodged two kunai. "Well I wouldn't really call it a plan, but…" Kakashi's eye widened and he spun around, his foot intercepting two clones that had sprang up from the ground below. As they exploded into smoke, he threw himself out of the way as another pair of clones slammed into the ground where he'd been standing. He quickly realized what was going on. Naruto was forcing him to lose track of the surroundings. Well, time to end that.

He created his own shadow clone and shunshined out of there. From his new vantage point, he watched as his clone made short work of the Naruto clones by grabbing one and using it as a flail. He even winced in sympathy as Naruto was smacked away into one of the trees.

"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!" Another hail of fireballs erupted from the treeline, accompanied with a hail of shuriken and kunai. Both the remaining Naruto clone and his own shadow clone erupted in smoke as the rain of projectiles dispelled them.

"Where did he go?!" Sakura yelled.

 _Not bad,_ the jonin thought as he watched the other two scurry out to drag Naruto back into the forest with them. _I'm pretty sure that little spat of teamwork was unintentional, but Naruto had the right idea. It's just a shame those two didn't follow up on it earlier._ Part of him wondered whether he wasn't holding back enough. It was clear that at least two of these genin realized just how far out of their league he was, and they seemed to be compensating properly.

But then again, he was restricting himself to defense and non-lethal weapons. Of course, lethality was a question of how much force he put behind something, and he could have quite easily sent that rock into Naruto's temple. But the point stood nonetheless. Shunshin really wasn't fair though. In a real fight, he'd abuse the shit out of that technique, but he had to give them a fighting chance to take the bell.

So no more quick escapes. He'd allow them an opportunity to feel accomplished, and then he'd start beating their asses into the dirt.

* * *

"Naruto you baka! You really thought you could take him alone?!"

Naruto spat out a bit of grass, irritated that no matter what he tried, all Sakura did was find fault in his actions. "I was trying to distract him for you guys. Maybe if you'd both attacked earlier before he got out, we might have been able to swipe the bell already!"

"Yeah right! You're just trying to be cool again! You'll never be as cool as-"

"Sakura, shut up!" Sasuke hissed. "Naruto was right the first time. Kakashi is a jonin. We can't just randomly attack him. We have to have a plan and we need to work together. And while we're in here, we all need to be quiet!"

Sakura was stunned that her idol would agree with the dead last, but she complied nonetheless.

"Dobe, how many of those clones can you make?"

Naruto snorted. "I've never kept track. So far, that was the most I've ever made."

A vein pulsed on Sasuke's forehead. "Can you at least do that again?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You distract him with them, and we move in from the side."

The blond rolled his eyes. "In case you didn't notice, that's what I was trying to do before!"

"And you expected us to know that without telling us?"

"I did tell you! Maybe you were just too busy adjusting that stick up your ass to listen!"

"All you said was we needed to take him together. Then you went rushing in ahead like you always do."

"I went and took the initiative!" Naruto retorted. "I made the first move! I went to draw his attention away from you so that you could come up with something better. If you're as good as everyone thinks you are, teme, you're the only one of us with any real chance of getting that bell off him!"

Both genin blinked. The blond never admitted that Sasuke was better than him, and that argument was actually pretty well thought out. Then Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he slugged Naruto in the cheek.

"Ow!"

"You're not Naruto," the Uchiha snapped. "The Naruto I know doesn't plan things like that, and he would never admit that I'm better than him."

"I _am_ Naruto!" the Uzumaki yelled, scrambling to his feet. "What? You think that I'm Kakashi just trying to screw with you?!"

"Kakashi-sensei is a jonin," Sasuke retorted. "He could easily screw with us like that."

"Maa, I don't know whether to be amused or insulted by that."

The three genin froze.

"But if I wanted to screw with you by impersonating Naruto," Kakashi continued as he stepped out from behind a tree, "I'd be sure to mimic Naruto's personal habits and mannerisms perfectly, and you wouldn't have any such hints like an out-of-character moment."

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" The fireball slammed into the tree before exploding, creating a cloud of splinters. Kakashi shunshined back down to where he'd been standing for dramatic effect, emerging from the smoke only to get peppered by a hail of kunai that he lazily dodged or deflected.

"Also, maybe you should rethink your position here," he added, noting that the genin were still in the same area, relative to himself. "Holding your ground in the face of a superior opponent is not good tactics."

"I don't retreat!" Sasuke snarled.

Kakashi frowned a bit before shrugging and tossing a kunai with a flash tag. "Suit yourself."

It was only right as the kunai went off that the jonin realized his mistake. But instead of obeying his ingrained instinct to jump away, he kept his feet firmly planted as the genin in front of him vanished in puffs of smoke. From behind, he could hear the young Uchiha call out his fire jutsu once more, and now he elected to move. It was unexpectedly difficult for him, since he was trying to take it easy on them and allow them a chance at winning.

As he hopped away, he saw both Sakura and Naruto converging on him from two sides, each with an arm outstretched towards his back. Once again, he clamped down on his urge to bury a kunai in Sakura's neck while kicking Naruto in the temple, which would have snapped his neck. They were Konoha genin entrusted to his tutelage, not enemy shinobi. Instead, he made a show of vanishing just as Sakura managed to grab the bell and pull it free.

"Yatta!" she screeched, causing both Naruto and Kakashi to wince, even with the distance the latter had put between himself and the pinkette. "I got it! Did you see that, Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto's expression of triumph soured. Didn't his contribution count for anything?

Sasuke smirked slightly, but instantly snapped his head toward the source of a new sound.

"Congratulations, kids," Kakashi drawled. "You managed to work together to get the bell in about twenty minutes. That's exactly nineteen minutes and twenty-five seconds longer than it would have taken a team of fully trained shinobi."

"But we're not fully trained," Naruto protested. "That's why you're our sensei."

"Oh I know that. But you need to know exactly where you three stand at the moment, especially you, Sasuke. That Uchiha pride of yours will be the death of you."

"My clan never refused a challenge!" Sasuke growled.

Kakashi snorted. "Sure they did, the smart ones, anyway. Every single Uchiha that acted the way you did died long before they ever reached chuunin. You know what's the first thing they teach you in ANBU? Anyone?" He looked around to make sure they were paying attention. "It's how to run away. ANBU spends more time running away than doing anything else. Why? Because we need to stay out of sight. Because a fight went sour. Because we need to get somewhere. ANBU are some of the best shinobi in the village, but we usually never fight. I learned that when I went in, and I taught it to everyone on the teams I commanded just like I was taught by my old commander. I even taught it to Itachi."

There it was, that flare of suppressed rage in Sasuke's eyes. Now he really had the boy's attention.

"You run because you are not an army. You run because fighting is not smart when you get down to it. You're usually locked in one place, or you're leaving a ton of evidence behind. And you're exhausting yourself. I've seen countless good men and women die because they got pulled into a fight they couldn't win, because they couldn't get away fast enough or quietly enough. And until you are more experienced, you need to know when and how to run away so you can survive long enough to become strong enough to win your fights.

"So that brings me to the first part of your actual training. Every other day, you three will run, a lot. Tomorrow, we'll be doing body exercises early on, but the day after will be a run day. You will run five kilometers non-stop. And every two weeks, I'll make it longer. After the morning exercise, I'll run you through combat drills, and then we'll do some studying. Two weeks from now, we'll be running missions. Not a day earlier. And if I hear a single complaint about how hard it is, I'll run you through ANBU conditioning training, which is about three times as hard."

Kakashi looked on with satisfaction as all three genin paled. It had been a while since he got to use his instructor voice.

"Now, I want you three to go out and buy some gear. Bandages, ointments, _good_ kunai and shuriken," he stressed, holding up some very worn examples, "wire, protein pills, a sharpening stone, and a notebook and pencil. After that, you're good for the day. But make sure you eat well tonight, and drink plenty of water. You'll be sweating it all off in the workout. And don't forget to bring everything you buy with you tomorrow."

* * *

"When I said to make the first move, I did not mean you should throw yourself headfirst into battle, boy," the old man said as Naruto approached the table, nursing his side.

"You were watching me?" the blond growled.

"One of my subordinates was," the man admitted. "It was a very poor performance on your part."

"What was I supposed to do?!" Naruto demanded angrily.

"Shall I start from the beginning?" the old man asked mildly. "When you left here yesterday, what did you do?"

"I went home," the blond muttered.

"And?"

"I went to bed."

"And therein lies your first mistake, boy," the man admonished. "Your sensei told you to be ready and waiting at a certain time in a certain place. He told you the location. What you should have done right away was head over to the training field."

"Why?"

"To scope it out. To familiarize yourself with the operational area. To prepare yourself and perhaps even gain an advantage." The man gestured to himself with his arm. "I have many scars from the times I fought on a battlefield the enemy chose for me. It is not a pleasant experience. Many battles are won or lost before the first blow is struck. Suppose that today's evaluation had been a mission deep in enemy territory instead, and that your opposition had lined the area with traps or were waiting to ambush you. When you arrived there this morning, would you have known it?" Silence greeted the question. "Of course not. Your first mistake is that you did not gather information. You did not take advantage of the time you were given to set the battlefield in your favor. You could have gone there yesterday and laid traps or prepared ambush areas for your sensei. But you did not. Understand?"

"But…" Naruto cut off his own protest, thinking back to Kakashi's words from the day before. The jonin had never said what to do when he left them. There was no reason he couldn't have done what the old man was saying. "I didn't think about any of that," he mumbled.

"Information is more than power, boy. As a shinobi, it is your life. You must always be observant of your surroundings. You must always prepare for the worst. Never pass up any opportunity to make the situation more favorable to yourself. To fight fair is to offer the enemy a chance to win, and in winning, the enemy will harm the village. Therefore…"

"…never fight fair," Naruto finished.

The man nodded. "Your sensei already informed you of the stupidity of foregoing your breakfast. I will simply add this: never compromise yourself unnecessarily. You are responsible for keeping your body in working condition. Do not let yourself become weak. Always ensure you obtain what your body needs, like so."

"Here you are, Naruto!" Ayame called as she walked over with a large steaming bowl of ramen. The main difference was that this bowl had a sizeable serving of meat and vegetables.

"But I didn't…" Naruto trailed off as he turned back to the old man with a question on his lips.

"Do you intend to waste my generosity?" the man smiled, gesturing for the boy to take a seat. "Thank you, Ayame-san."

"You're welcome, Elder Shimura!" the waitress bowed and scurried back to the stand.

Naruto picked up the accompanying chopsticks and grabbed a large clump of noodles. "Elder Shimura?"

"Well I suppose you now know my name, boy," the man smirked. "What will you do with it?"

Naruto slurped slightly as he thought of an answer. "Look you up, I guess?"

"Very good," Shimura nodded approvingly. "Also, you should eat the vegetables in that bowl. Your body requires protein, salt, sugar, vitamins and minerals to function. Vegetables will supply much of that for you."

Naruto eyed the veggies and made a face. "But they're yucky."

"There are many things we may not like but we find are necessary for us. And who knows? You may yet change your mind, boy."

Naruto grimaced, but used his spoon and chopsticks to snag a few vegetables before filling the rest of the spoon with broth and noodles. Then he swept it into his mouth. His expression changed. Somehow, the flavor was different. Not unpleasantly so, but it was a contrast to the fairly salty taste his tongue was used to.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Naruto swallowed before a thought occurred to him. "Why aren't you a sensei, Shimura-san?"

The old man chuckled. "Who says I'm not?"

"Well it's just…when you explain it, it's easy for me to get it. Maybe you should be my sensei."

"Now that would be unfair to Jonin Hatake, would it not?" Shimura admonished. "The Hokage assigned you to him for a reason." He ignored the dark look on Naruto's face. "I'm sure he can instruct you in certain things that I cannot. Besides," Danzo looked over Naruto's head, locking his gaze with another cyclopean shinobi in the distance, "certain individuals have reservations about allowing me to formally train you."

* * *

Kakashi warily watched the elder as the man interacted with the Uzumaki. His orders from the Hokage echoed in the back of his mind. While both elder shinobi had immense respect for each other, Hiruzen was loathe to allow Danzo to ruin everything he'd come to cherish about the son of his successor.

The jonin could understand where his superior was coming from. He'd had the experience of interacting with Danzo's ROOT shinobi before. While they were undeniably effective killers, their utter lack of humanity had disturbed him, in part because he'd once aspired to that state in the wake of his teammate's deaths.

And he himself had fond memories of the boy as an eternally cheerful child when he'd been on the guard detail. Letting the boy turn into another emotionless drone was absolutely out of the question.

But so far, Danzo hadn't tried to take that road. He'd listened in on their conversations both times, and the man only seemed to give out information and wisdom that any shinobi would have learned at some point. Granted, it was a bit much to expect a twelve year old to fully grasp the concept of field reconnaissance or target research, but rumor was the man trained his ROOT from childhood. Perhaps he had that aspect down to a science.

He watched as Naruto finished his bowl and thanked the man before turning to leave. He waited for Naruto to move off into the market place before alerting the boy to his presence by laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey! What-sensei?"

"I remember how the storekeepers treated you as a kid," the prepared excuse rolled off his tongue, "so I figured I'd go with you."

Naruto blinked. "Really?"

The jonin shrugged. "It's not like I have anything else to do right now."

The boy's face brightened a bit as he walked ahead of him. As they passed through the market, the usual glares met the Uzumaki, only to quickly disappear with a threatening look from the former ANBU captain. Naruto followed his sensei into a small shop.

"Hello again, Kakashi-sempai," the shopkeeper greeted the jonin. "And I see you've brought one of your students here. Showing him around?"

Naruto blinked again, unused to the lack of hostility. Kakashi chuckled. "Naruto, this is Ichijou, a retired ANBU. He runs this equipment shop for shinobi. This is where I go for nearly everything I need on missions."

"Except food," Ichijou laughed. "I'm still hopeless at cooking."

"Remember what I told you to get?" the jonin prompted.

"Uh, bandages, wire, ointment, kunai and shuriken?"

"Also protein pills, a sharpening stone, and a notebook and pencil," Kakashi finished.

"The introductory package, eh, sempai?"

"You know it."

As the man went into the back of his shop, Naruto had a thought. "Sensei, you said he's a retired ANBU?"

"Long story short, he suffered an injury that ended his career," the man answered. "Since then, he's opened up this place as a way to make sure all shinobi are fully prepared for their missions outside. That way, no one else gets forced to retire like he was."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, sensing there was more to the story than that. But any further attempt to ask questions was interrupted by the retired ANBU coming back out with a scroll and setting it on his desk. "This one's on the house, sempai,"

Naruto had been automatically reaching for his gama-chan wallet, dreading the bill when Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder. "No need, Naruto. This is free for you."

"One time offer, gaki," Ichijou warned. "Once you start making money from missions, you'll be paying for these yourself."

Naruto accepted the scroll, tucking it under his arm. "Thanks, Ichijou-san!"

The man waved it off. "Ichijou is fine. Look forward to seeing you around, gaki."

Student and sensei left the shop, and paused outside. "Anything else you need, Naruto? Got food in your fridge at home?"

Naruto made a face, thinking about the overripe or stale foods in his apartment. "Not really," he admitted.

Kakashi's eye narrowed. "Well let's fix that. No student of mine is getting ripped off by anyone."

* * *

It was safe to say that the former ANBU captain put the fear of kami into every prejudiced shopkeeper in Konoha. While many were competitors of a sort, there was also a camaraderie that existed. The merchants all pretty much knew each other and shared in village gossip. So when a chilling account of a deadly calm jonin describing in exacting detail what he would do if he discovered his 'demon brat' of a student was being treated unfairly began making the rounds, it was not long before the entire village knew it.

The very next day, after a grueling morning workout session, Kakashi would use this as an object lesson in information gathering.

To everyone's surprise, after the daily torture regimen, Naruto proved to be quite studious, being far quieter and more insightful during the team's lessons than anyone would have expected. He only uttered a few protests at being told to repeat certain drills for hours, and only during that first week. Wrapping and unraveling a bandage around an arm or leg over and over would try the patience of most, but there was considerably less noise than either Sasuke or Sakura were used to from the blond.

Speaking of the other two, Sasuke had shown complete attention to anything Kakashi taught them, reasoning that the man who instructed Itachi surely knew what he was doing. There was only one incident, during the third D-Rank mission their team was on, where he'd exploded in impatience.

"This is what we do?!" he demanded, giving voice the same frustrations the other two genin internalized. "We paint fences, pick vegetables, and walk people's dogs? Why can't civilians do this themselves?!"

"Oh I'm sure they could," Kakashi answered, leaning against an unpainted section of the fence with his nose in an orange book, drawing disapproving glares from several passing women, including one wearing a dress apparently made of ribbons, trailing three fellow genin and a cart of goods. "But these are missions for a reason."

"They're not missions! They're _chores!_ This is beneath us!"

Kakashi snapped his book shut, and regarded his team. "Is it?"

"We're shinobi! We fight! We go out there and defend the village! But the people in our village won't handle their own chores?!"

"Everything has a purpose, Sasuke." Kakashi pushed himself off the fence. "D-Rank missions are a community outreach effort, a public relations gimmick. They allow us to better connect with the people we protect. They make us visible without having to hurt or kill people. Civilians are uncomfortable with that kind of violence. It's better for our villagers that we have an image as friendly protectors, not bloodthirsty hooligans.

"Also, didn't you notice that Imahara-san is sick?" Three blank looks greeted him. "The man was exhausted from coming down the stairs of his house to greet us this morning, and his wife looked concerned for him. There were two pill bottles on his kitchen table that I could see from the doorway. He was limping, and his skin tone was redder than it usually is. Imahara is a frequent customer of the mission office, and he has a history of poor health. Ergo, we are doing this because the man himself _cannot._ None of this was available in the mission details. You had to look around in his house, and know the client."

Kakashi noted that as soon as he explained all that, Naruto's eyes began flickering around everywhere, trying to apply his newfound knowledge. Behind his mask, he smirked approvingly.

"D-Ranks are a method of training. They let genin get their feet wet and practice critical skills without life-threatening danger. You think this is all pointless? Say a spy decided to impersonate mister Imahara, a man with business everywhere in the village. It's a perfect cover, since the spy could then move around with almost no one being the wiser. How would you be able to tell the difference between that spy and the real deal?"

"From knowing his personal habits, sensei," Sakura chimed in.

Kakashi shook his head. "But you don't know them right now. So again, how would you be able to tell the difference?"

Sasuke racked his brains, but could not come up with an answer. "…you can't," he admitted.

"Exactly. Without being familiar with the village, you are unable to root out a spy, and thus unable to fully protect it. Or alternatively, instead of a spy, it's an assassin. If you knew the man, you'd know his usual hangouts and movement patterns, where you're likely to see him at different times of the day. If he deviated, you could potentially identify him as an imposter, figure out who his target is, and alert them. But again, you don't know the man.

"My sensei told me something that I try to live by, every moment of every day: everything is training. The most pointless thing you can think of is still a form of training. It's up to you to find the value in it, and learn from it. These D-Ranks are an opportunity for you to train your observational skills and develop connections with people. You do the exact same thing on higher ranked missions, except you're more likely to be killed."

The woman and three genin had stopped in the street, all staring with open mouths at the cyclopean jonin, the former in awe and embarrassment that she hadn't come up with that, due to her relative inexperience.

"If you aren't always aware of your surroundings, your situation, and the people nearby, you're more likely to be caught off guard, and taken out by the enemy. Case in point: you see the fence? Wasn't that section unpainted a few minutes ago?"

The three genin whipped their heads around. Sure enough, there was a section of painted fence, and a clone of the jonin standing by, spinning a soaked paintbrush on his finger without a single drop flying off and splattering his flak jacket.

"My clone could have killed you three right there, because you were not paying attention around you. Yes, you were listening to me ramble, but you should always mind your surroundings. You never know-"

Another clone appeared behind the jonin, fist drawn back. Kakashi took his left hand, which had been across his waist, and whipped it toward his left ear without looking behind him. The clone poofed into smoke, and a kunai clattered to the ground.

"-where the enemy might pop up."

All shinobi present gaped at the former ANBU, who laughed internally at their expressions.

"You got all that? Good. Now get back to work."

That was the only time any of them had complained. All three were taking to his instruction like fish to water. Another week later, he was idly listening to the three compare notes from their intelligence gathering efforts while contemplating how fun it actually was to teach genin from the ground up. He next planned to introduce the three to a similarly minded edgy and vicious purple-haired kunoichi. The three genin felt a sudden chill as Kakashi cackled to himself in his mind, imagining the impending screams.

* * *

 **In all the time I've been reading Naruto fanfiction, I have never seen anyone fully explore why D-Ranks are a thing. It's understandable. Everyone wants to get to the fun stuff. But military or intelligence operations in real life are all the same: long periods of boredom punctuated by brief moments of sheer terror and chaos.**

 **Kakashi was an ANBU Captain. He wasn't just a member of a spec-ops unit, he was an officer, in charge of instilling discipline, respect for the chain of command, and functionally an instructor to less seasoned members. Yet in Canon, he slacked off, barely teaching his team anything resembling critical skills. Yes, people in retirement can let themselves go, but someone with his reputation and experience should have done much better at training Team 7 for life as a shinobi.**

 **In here, Kakashi will serve as Sarutobi's agent, attempting to win back Naruto's esteem and keep him from going Danzo's route. Ironically, Danzo has no aspiration to convert Naruto, but nobody trusts his word on that.**

 **In military operations, invisibility is the best armor. If no one is aware of you, you have a tremendous advantage. It's why Pathfinders and Scouts are the most important resources for a battlefield commander. You need to know where the enemy is before you can really hurt them. ANBU, when they're out on missions, would function as deniable guerilla forces. They perform hit and runs. He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. That ability to disappear without letting the enemy follow them is their number one asset. They are not a massed army. They cannot stand and fight without failing their objectives. In that scenario, training to run away is logically the first thing you'd want to focus on for new inductees, who are more used to straight up combat.**

 **Finally, I'm sure everyone can guess who was cameoing during the D-Rank lecture.**


End file.
